Current Research in Soil Borne Plant Pathogens

A special issue of Journal of Fungi (ISSN 2309-608X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 769

Special Issue Editors

School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: Fusarium oxysporum; Fusarium wilt in banana; banana—Fusarium interactions; Verticillium dahliae; host plant resistance to Fusarium oxysporum

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Guest Editor
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: diseases of tropical crops; the genetics of plant—pathogen interactions; molecular aspects of pathogenicity and disease diagnostics; Fusarium oxysporum; Fusarium wilt in banana; Verticillium dahliae

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soilborne diseases cause major reductions in crop production every year. With a changing climate, pathogens are believed to be adapting and evolving under different geographical conditions conducive for diseases. Crops of all size and shapes, including vegetables, fruits, cereals, ornamentals, and high-value crops are vulnerable to a wide range of soilborne pathogens including but not limited to fungi, oomycetes, nematodes, and viruses. Some of the common soilborne pathogens include Fusarium ssp., Phytophthora spp., Pythium spp., Sclerotinia spp., Verticillium spp., Rhizoctonia spp., and Thielaviopsis spp. In this Special Issue, we welcome original research, short communications, reviews, and reports on all aspects of soilborne pathogens, including advances in pathogen population genetics; pathogen diagnostics to aid early detection of pathogens in the field; forward or reverse genetics in understanding the fungal effectors that are important in plant pathogenesis; epidemiology of the infection process; biological control systems in the effective management of soilborne diseases; soil fertility, health, and studies on pathogen-suppressive soils; integrated systems for disease management; studies at the gene expression and protein level to understand plant–pathogen interactions; host plant resistance mechanisms; large genomic and transcriptomic datasets to understand genome structure and diversity, as well as the pathogenicity of plant soilborne pathogens and the corresponding host defence pathways; proof-of-function knockout mutants; and identification, isolation, and cultivation of these pathogens.

Given the prevalence of these pathogens in agriculture, the difficulties in the long-term control of these pathogens, and their economic significance, we hope that this Special Issue will provide a platform for current research in soilborne plant pathogens to be disseminated and thereby addressing the knowledge gaps to improve our understanding of these pathogens and their management in the field.

Dr. Andrew Chen
Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Aitken
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soilborne pathogens
  • Fusarium spp.
  • Phytophthora spp.
  • Pythium spp.
  • Sclerotinia spp.
  • Verticillium spp.
  • Rhizoctonia spp.
  • Thielaviopsis spp.
  • pathogen population genetics
  • pathogen diagnostics
  • biological control of soilborne diseases
  • plant-pathogen interactions
  • host resistance to soilborne pathogens
  • characterization of pathogen effectors
  • genomic and transcriptomic characterisation of these pathogens

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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21 pages, 15596 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Pathogenicity of Berkeleyomyces rouxiae and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum on Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) Using a Rapid and Robust Seedling Screening Method
by Andrew Chen, Duy P. Le, Linda J. Smith, Dinesh Kafle, Elizabeth A. B. Aitken and Donald M. Gardiner
J. Fungi 2024, 10(10), 715; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof10100715 - 15 Oct 2024
Viewed by 393
Abstract
Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is the most important fibre crop worldwide. Black root rot and Fusarium wilt are two major diseases of cotton caused by soil-borne Berkeleyomyces rouxiae and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (Fov), respectively. Phenotyping plant symptoms caused by [...] Read more.
Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is the most important fibre crop worldwide. Black root rot and Fusarium wilt are two major diseases of cotton caused by soil-borne Berkeleyomyces rouxiae and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum (Fov), respectively. Phenotyping plant symptoms caused by soil-borne pathogens has always been a challenge. To increase the uniformity of infection, we adapted a seedling screening method that directly uses liquid cultures to inoculate the plant roots and the soil. Four isolates, each of B. rouxiae and Fov, were collected from cotton fields in Australia and were characterised for virulence on cotton under controlled plant growth conditions. While the identities of all four B. rouxiae isolates were confirmed by multilocus sequencing, only two of them were found to be pathogenic on cotton, suggesting variability in the ability of isolates of this species to cause disease. The four Fov isolates were phylogenetically clustered together with the other Australian Fov isolates and displayed both external and internal symptoms characteristic of Fusarium wilt on cotton plants. Furthermore, the isolates appeared to induce varied levels of plant disease severity indicating differences in their virulence on cotton. To contrast the virulence of the Fov isolates, four putatively non-pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum (Fo) isolates collected from cotton seedlings exhibiting atypical wilt symptoms were assessed for their ability to colonise cotton host. Despite the absence of Secreted in Xylem genes (SIX6, SIX11, SIX13 and SIX14) characteristic of Fov, all four Fo isolates retained the ability to colonise cotton and induce wilt symptoms. This suggests that slightly virulent strains of Fo may contribute to the overall occurrence of Fusarium wilt in cotton fields. Findings from this study will allow better distinction to be made between plant pathogens and endophytes and allow fungal effectors underpinning pathogenicity to be explored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research in Soil Borne Plant Pathogens)
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